Exclude `.js` files but not '.min.js' files from MSBuild publish

Question

Using Visual Studio and MSBuild I would like to be able to exclude all .js files and include all .min.js files in my deployments.

I know this can be achieved using the file properties in visual studio, but this is not an option as there are far too many files.

I have the following PublishProfile in my Visual Studio project. Everything works just fine apart from the <ItemGroup>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--
This file is used by the publish/package process of your Web project. You can customize the behavior of this process
by editing this MSBuild file. In order to learn more about this please visit http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=208121. 
-->
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
    <PropertyGroup>
        <WebPublishMethod>FileSystem</WebPublishMethod>
        <LastUsedBuildConfiguration>Delpoy-Static</LastUsedBuildConfiguration>
        <LastUsedPlatform>Any CPU</LastUsedPlatform>
        <SiteUrlToLaunchAfterPublish />
        <LaunchSiteAfterPublish>True</LaunchSiteAfterPublish>
        <ExcludeApp_Data>True</ExcludeApp_Data>
        <publishUrl>\\***\wwwroot\***.com\static</publishUrl>
        <DeleteExistingFiles>False</DeleteExistingFiles>
    </PropertyGroup>
    <!--This does not work, but gives the idea of what I want to achieve-->
    <ItemGroup>
        <Deploy Exclude="**\*.js" Include="**\*.min.js" />
    </ItemGroup>
</Project>

Can this be achieved using the PublishProfile? If so, how?

I can help you with the MSBuild if you like but let me suggest publish ignore blogs.msdn.com/b/webdev/archive/2013/08/22/…. Can you take a look and let me know if you still need the MSBuild publish profile solution? — Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi
– Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi, Commented Aug 28, 2014 at 0:03
Thanks this looks great, I just need to figure out how I can ignore .js files and not .min.js files using the syntax available. Does publish ignore follow gitignore syntax strictly? — Blowsie
– Blowsie, Commented Aug 29, 2014 at 8:37
Seems not Error MSB4018: The "ReadPublishIgnoreFile" task failed unexpectedly. System.NotSupportedException: The ! operator is not currently supported in publish.ignore at InlineCode.ReadPublishIgnoreFile.Execute() in c:\Users\sblowes\AppData\Local\Temp\bzp34wjd.0.cs:line 89 at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.TaskExecutionHost.Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.ITaskExecutionHost.Execute() at Microsoft.Build.BackEnd.TaskBuilder.<ExecuteInstantiatedTask>d__20.MoveNext() — Blowsie
– Blowsie, Commented Aug 29, 2014 at 8:55
Sorry I forgot I never implemented support for !. I've opened an issue to track it github.com/ligershark/publish-ignore/issues/8. I've also answered below. — Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi
– Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi, Commented Sep 9, 2014 at 18:24

Ilya Kozhevnikov · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-09 15:21:23Z

10

+100

<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <WebPublishMethod>FileSystem</WebPublishMethod>
    <!-- ... -->
  </PropertyGroup>

  <Target Name="BeforeBuild">
    <ItemGroup>
      <Minified Include="**\*.min.js" />
      <Maxified Include="**\*.js" Exclude="@(Minified)" />
      <Content Remove="@(Maxified)" />
    </ItemGroup>
  </Target>
</Project>

Edit:

<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <WebPublishMethod>FileSystem</WebPublishMethod>
    <!-- ... -->
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <Minified Include="**\*.min.js" />
    <Maxified Include="**\*.js" Exclude="@(Minified)" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <PropertyGroup>
    <ExcludeFoldersFromDeployment>bin</ExcludeFoldersFromDeployment>
    <ExcludeFilesFromDeployment>@(Maxified);Web.config</ExcludeFilesFromDeployment>
  </PropertyGroup>
</Project>

edited Sep 9, 2014 at 15:21

answered Sep 2, 2014 at 17:26

Ilya Kozhevnikov

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10 Comments

Blowsie Over a year ago

sorry I didn't have time to test before the bounty ran out. I have doubled the bounty and will reward within 24h

Blowsie Over a year ago

Strange, this conflicts with this line <ExcludeFoldersFromDeployment>bin;</ExcludeFoldersFromDeployment>. When using your code the bin folder is still deployed.

Ilya Kozhevnikov Over a year ago

@Blowsie weird, works fine with an empty web app project, no bin deployed, just the .min.js. Do you have DeleteExistingFiles set? Exclude*FromDeployment is even better, no need to muck about with events, see the edit.

Blowsie Over a year ago

Updated example throws an error The attribute "Remove" in element <Content> is unrecognized

Ilya Kozhevnikov Over a year ago

@Blowsie there is no Remove attribute in the second non-event based one.

|

Irvin Dominin · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-07 15:18:09Z

3

If you want to exclude files you can place the files to be excluded in the the ExcludeFromPackageFiles item group. In your case you want to take all .js files and exclude all but those that are *.min.js. To do that in your .pubxml file add the following in your .pubxml file .

  <ItemGroup>
    <ExcludeFromPackageFiles Include="js\**\*.js" Exclude="js\**\*min*.js">
      <FromTarget>Project</FromTarget>
    </ExcludeFromPackageFiles>
  </ItemGroup>

Note: this snippet assumes that your .js files are in a folder named js.

edited Feb 7, 2017 at 15:18

Irvin Dominin

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answered Sep 9, 2014 at 18:18

Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi

44.5k18 gold badges150 silver badges180 bronze badges

2 Comments

Blowsie Over a year ago

Thanks, another quick question. Is there a target for when a file-system web publish has finished?

t.j. Over a year ago

Is this still applicable with VS 2015 when publishing to Azure? I'm finding the non-minified js files are in the temp folder created before pushing to Azure, and then also end up pushed to Azure as well. Js files for my project are in [solution folder][project folder]\wwwroot\js. I've tried paths such as "wwwroot\js\" and just "js\"

Marbin274 · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-19 19:55:29Z

work to me:

Edit .csproj file
Find section MinifyJavaScriptAndCSS
Edit property Exclude in JS tag
Add directory or files to ignore during publish

<Target Name="MinifyJavaScriptAndCSS" AfterTargets="CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackage" Condition="'$(Configuration)'=='Release'">
    <ItemGroup>

      <!-- Every .js file (exclude *.min.js and *.vsdoc.js files) -->
      <JS Include="$(_PackageTempDir)\**\*.js" Exclude="$(_PackageTempDir)\**\*.min.js;$(_PackageTempDir)\**\*vsdoc.js;" />

      <CSS Include="$(_PackageTempDir)\**\*.css" Exclude="$(_PackageTempDir)\**\*.min.css" />
    </ItemGroup>
    <AjaxMin JsKnownGlobalNames="jQuery,$" JsSourceFiles="@(JS)" JsSourceExtensionPattern="\.js$" JsTargetExtension=".js" CssSourceFiles="@(CSS)" CssSourceExtensionPattern="\.css$" CssTargetExtension=".css" />
    <Message Text="[pcv] $(MSBuildProjectName) -&gt; Minified: @(JS)" Importance="high" />
    <Message Text="[pcv] $(MSBuildProjectName) -&gt; Minified: @(CSS)" Importance="high" />

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